Life After Godspeed
by theboardwalkbody
Summary: AU - Orion survives. Story takes place during and after the events of Shades of Earth (also contains spoilers from Beth Revis' short stories "Love is a Choice" and "The Other Elder" and her novella "As They Slip Away"). Orion/OFC & Amy/Elder (coming in chapter 7/8).
1. The Man on the Hill

It was almost dark now; only a small thumbnail-like portion of the higher sun was poking above the horizon. Stella knew she should be heading back toward the base if she was to make it to the mandatory meeting Zane arranged for the evening but her feet kept on pulling her forward. It was humid and her clothes stuck to her skin as she walked so when she reached a hill she considered turning back after all so that she wouldn't have to exert herself. Her legs seemed to have a mind of their own, however, and she hiked up the hillside anyway. Upon reaching the the top of the hill she saw a curious site that made her glad that her body had gone against her mind and brought her here.

In the rapidly fading light any human would only have been able to make out the silhouette of a human body leaning against the lone tree that stood there, but she was no human and her heightened senses were able to let her see so much more. It was a man, one of the ones that had come from the ship, Godspeed, and he wasn't so much leaning against the tree as he was propped there, his body seemed to be sitting there limply like a doll. Around his body were scraps of meat that were usually fed to the pteros as snacks. It was no mistake that this man was left here to be devoured, and perhaps he'd been knocked out or killed first, which would explain his limpness.

She had no idea how long the man had been there; how long ago a ptero had been called and released. It was highly probable that the beast was on it's way there at this very moment and the logical thing for anyone to do would be to turn and run as fast as possible. She put a hand to the tiny whistle she wore around her neck, double checking that it was there (which is silly because she was never without it), before dropping her hand back to her side and walking toward the man. She didn't fear the pteros, she was the one who raised them, a job she loved and took pride in, but she wasn't a fool either. She knew they were wild animals and her having a motherly connection to them didn't change the fact that they could still snap at her if they chose to, and that was why she always kept the whistle used to control and tame them on her at all times.

She stopped in front of the man, who was definitely a site for sore eyes. He was bloody, his skin ripped in odd ways, bruises marked his body. His eyes were closed and his eyelids had dried blood on them as if they too had bled, which was probably the case if the rest of his body was in a similar state. She knelt down by the man and placed her ear by his face, listening for sounds of breathing. She heard none. She went to lift his wrist, but upon touching it she realized something was off. His skin had a spongy feel to it and that sensation mixed with the sticky blood that caked his wrist caused her to drop it. She placed two fingers on his neck instead, and placed her hear against his chest.

There it was. A pulse. Whoever left him here must have either wanted him dead or thought he was dead. She knew it was one of her people who had brought this man here, since no one else would have had the scraps of meat for the ptero, and she had to give whoever it was the benefit of the doubt that they had no idea this man was still alive. One of us or not, she didn't want to think her people were murderers. Still, she wondered what happened between this man and one of her people that left this man bloody and dying on this hilltop.

She didn't have time to think of the reasons now, however, and without wasting any time she gently scooped the man up (which would not have been so easy, as he was bigger than her, if she hadn't had the strength of two men) and ran, as carefully as she could as to not hurt the limp man in her arms any further, to one of the tunnels that ran to the underground base.


	2. The Doctor

When she reached the concealed door that would lead her to the eastern tunnel of the underground complex she swiped her thumb against a small scanner beside the door. The screen briefly flashed the word "Hybrid" before unlocking, emitting a soft clicking sound as it did, and swinging open an inch or so to prevent locking again before entry. She kicked the thick metal door open more with her foot and turned sideways so that she wouldn't hit the man's head or feet against the doorway. Once inside the tunnel she kicked the door closed behind her, making sure it locked before continuing.

It took several minutes before she came to a main connection. Here four tunnels all collided, forming a small circle in the center. Sometimes she liked to wander these tunnels for fun and would stop and just hang out in one of the intersection rooms because they were usually so quiet. They were also brightly lit and allowed her to work on whatever she wished without being interrupted. The only times the tunnels ever saw heavy traffic was when an attack was being carried out. The FRX hadn't bothered them in a while, not in person, anyway, and so the tunnels had remained quiet. But, if Zane was planning an attack on the Goodspeed people, or if they were planning an attack on them, she figured these tunnels would start to see some traffic soon. If she was at the meeting she'd figured she'd know these answers by now, but she wasn't. At least, not yet. Once this man was with the doctor she would be making her appearance.

She turned into the Northern tunnel. It would only be a few minutes before she reached the medical office. She was getting nervous, though, and placed her fingers against the man's neck again to make sure he hadn't died in her arms as she carried him. She sighed with relief when she felt his pulse, glad that he hadn't passed on, but she was still worried about the way it was a dangerously low and shallow beat. She couldn't even hear it, it was so shallow, and usually she could hear a heartbeat from at least a few feet away, more if the person she was near was scared or overly excited.

'Finally,' she thought as the door to the medical office came into view. It was still several feet down the hall and she walked quicker, she was almost running again. When she reached the door she didn't bother to knock (besides she needed her hands to hold the man and, unlike the lock-scanner outside the tunnel, knocking wasn't a necessity), she simply kicked the door and let it swing open.

The doctor nearly jumped out of his skin when the door slammed against the metal wall and caused a bang that even Stella thought was a little too loud, and she had expected it.

"What's going on?" he asked. There was no emotion in his voice, there never was when he was dealing with a patient. No matter how bad the situation at hand the doctor always kept calm and never got attached.

"This man is dying." Stella told him. Unlike the doctor, her voice was full of emotion. She heard it with her own ears. Fear and worry had laced themselves in her voice and she didn't even know why. Why was she so worried about the fate of a man she'd never before seen in her life,; a man who was never even supposed to have come here at all? "Can you save him, Doctor Lalo?"

Dr. Lalo wasn't very old. He had to have been in his early 30's, Stella never bothered to ask. The doctor had been here since she'd started, which was only five years ago, and it just seemed like one of those unnecessary (and rude) questions – you don't just ask someone, especially a doctor, how old they are. He was always a gentle man – smart, too. That was probably why they pulled him out of the city and allowed him to work here in the complex, he was probably the best doctor on the planet. Stella had to admit, he did know his job well – he'd managed to save many of her fellow hybrids, regular people from the city, and he could even patch up her beloved pteros. She just hoped that he'd be able to save this man who was already so close to death she wondered how he had even made it this far. He must really have some fight in him.

The doctor motioned for Stella to lay the man on one of the operating tables against the left wall. He helped her lay the man down and then stepped aside and ran a hand through his short blonde hair, before resting his hand (now in a loose fist) against his lips. Concentration made him furrow his brow and his eyes looked so distant.

The distance in his eyes made Stella remember the people in the city, how they all had that same distant look in their eyes, like they were there but not really there, only it wasn't because they were lost in thought like the doctor was. She knew why they were like that, she knew that if it wasn't for a defect in her body she'd be the same as them, and she knew that it was the FRX's fault. She knew that none of these people deserved to live a life of slavery. It was the basis of all arguments her and the others had against the FRX, but whenever the issue of slavery was brought up in communications with any FRX representative they all had the same answer, "Is a slave really a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?" It was always then when shouts would erupt and any chance of a calm, rational argument was thrown out the window. How could one have a rational argument with people who were clearly irrational. Of course a slave is a slave even if they don't know it! Did the FRX people really think otherwise or were they just trying to act as fools, claim ignorance, so that the Hybrids wouldn't blame them? Stella was glad the FRX representatives had stopped having meetings face-to-face with her people because she knew that if any of them had said that in front of her she'd have ripped their throat out where they stood regardless of if that action would have caused a war or not.

"Well?" Stella asked when the doctor stood there in thought for way longer than she was comfortable with. 'Surely he should be doing something by now,' she thought.

Dr. Lalo walked around the table a few times (Stella had to step out of his way because she was sure he would have walked right into her otherwise), lifting the mans limbs and poking and prodding at his skin, surely wondering what had happened to him. He stopped suddenly and almost bounded across the room, faster than Stella had seen him move ever before. He pulled an ancient-looking scanner out of the bottom of a cabinet and scanned the mans entire body once. The scanning process took a few moments and Stella knew that if this machine had been built anywhere in the last 25 years it would have done this job in seconds. In fact, she knew they had scanners, so what was so special about this ancient one that it was the one the doctor needed to use?

"Doctor?" she asked when the scan was done. "Can you save him or not?"

The doctor was silent for a moment as he read the scanner. The look on his face was dark. "I don't know."

"What!?" Stella had never seen this man unsure of anything, he could always handle the worst case scenarios. She also still didn't know why she even cared so much.

"I need you to go. If I am to try and save him I will need time and no distractions." The doctor told her.

Without a word Stella left the medical office. She wanted to wait outside, but she didn't know why she wanted to so she figured it'd be best to go and let the doctor work in peace. Pacing around outside the door like some worried lover was certainly not going to help either the doctor or the man. Or herself for that matter because why get so worked up over a stranger anyway? So no, she wouldn't stay, she would go. Besides, she had a meeting to get to.


	3. Meetings

The meeting, which Stella was at least thirty to forty minutes late to, was almost over and when Stella stormed in through the doors all heads turned toward her. There were only six people sitting at the large table in the center of the room. Only one chair was unoccupied.

"Who's the man on the hill?" It didn't come out as so much a question but rather as a demand.

"You're late." Zane stated as if she hadn't said anything at all.

"Who is the man on the hill?" She asked again. She stood in the doorway looking much like something a gust of wind blew in. Her hair was falling out of the pony tail she always kept it in and she was breathing heavier than normal.

"Stella, you can't just barge into a meeting – a meeting that your attendance to was mandatory – and think you can start asking your own questions. If you had an issue to address we would have gladly heard you out if you had showed up like you were supposed to." Zane answered her.

She hated it when he acted like he was better than her, like he was some sort of old, wizened military leader when really he was only about the same age as the doctor down the hall and was only ordering around under a hundred people either the same age as or younger than himself.

"For your information, Zane, I did show up to the meeting. I'm here now, aren't I? Now, who the hell is the man on the hill!?" She wanted to slap everyone in the room for not answering her. She knew it had to have been one of the people with regular access to this complex. She knew that at least one person in this room had to have known who had done it – that it was possible Zane had ordered this action done. But no one was speaking up and it was really pissing her off.

"Zane, I swear on the stars I will go around asking every single Hybrid on this planet who left that man on that damned hill and called the pteros on him. I swear that if no one has an answer for me then I will call the pteros on them and see how they like it. I will ask ONE more time. Who is the man on the hill?" She repeated her question slowly and punctuated each word with her anger.

For a long moment no one spoke. They all silently looked at each other as if they all had no idea what she was raving about, as if she had gone insane. Until, finally, one head turned toward her. Chris. He was a few years younger than her and was practically Zane's pet soldier. It irked her to no end that a boy, who had only just joined the ranks a year ago, was Zane's favorite when there were plenty older and more experienced people in the complex who were better than he was.

"He was a man born on Godspeed." Chris told her. He sounded like he was reading the line off a sheet of paper. Like he was reading over a script for the first time, the words coming out with a robotic feel.

"No shit. Anyone with eyes could see that." She was annoyed. It felt like an insult to her intelligence being told what was obvious. "What was he doing on the hill? What had he done that put him there?"

"He was dead." Chris said. "Amy and Elder, the Earth girl and the Godspeed leader, they were with him. They saw him die. He was on the shuttle somehow. When I got there he was dead. They didn't know what to do with his body so I told them I would take care of it. I thought the easiest way would be to let the pteros have him."

The other five people in the room were all staring at him, Stella felt glad to have the attention off of her and to have them know that she wasn't a raving lunatic.

"Why are you going on about a dead man on a hill?" Zane asked, turning the focus back on Stella.

"Because he wasn't dead." Stella told them.

All eyes once again shifted toward Chris and Stella swore she saw him slide down in his chair, just a little, like a child who had failed to answer a question properly in front of his class and had his peers all laughing at him.

"The man is with Dr. Lalo now." Stella continued. "He wants to be left alone, there's something really wrong with the man, and the doctor said that he needs to be left alone to work."

"I think I know what's wrong with him." Chris said, quietly, like he wasn't sure he should be saying anything more. Stella figured he was trying to redeem himself by offering information that could help. "There was a cryo chamber on the shuttle. Not like the ones the Earth people were in, but a different kind, one for temporary freezing, I think maybe he was in there."

"And you left him on a hill to be eaten by pteros? My peteros?" Stella asked.

"I thought he was dead! Three people, Stella, thought he was dead! What else was I supposed to do?" Chris argued.

"You could have checked first." Stella said and stormed out of the room. She had to get back to the medical office and tell Dr. Lalo that the man was possibly frozen before ending up on the hill. Maybe it would help him save his life.

Stella was running down the hall, drawing attention from the people she passed on the way there. She knocked gently, but rapidly, on the medical office door. She didn't want to startle the doctor, just get his attention. It seemed like forever had passed by the time he answered.

"Doctor! The man! I think he was -" she was out of breath and her sentences were short, but the doctor cut her off.

"Frozen. Yes, I know." He told her.

"You knew?" She asked.

"Yes. That scanner, it's one of the ones that came over with the first colony. It's ancient by our standards of machinery and medicine, but it was built for the purpose of detecting if a person had any cryogenic liquids inside of them. It was designed for use if any other peoples arrived." The doctor explained.

"And this man had cryoliquid in him?" Stella didn't really understand the process of freezing people, it was only explained to her once.

"No. But the scanner showed significant internal congilato, and the softening of the tissues were most likely caused by too much water being in his body." He told her.

Stella didn't understand any of this. "Congilato?"

"Frost bite. Internal frost bite due to freezing and his body took on too much water when he thawed out. I don't think he was frozen properly. You're not supposed to just enter a cryochamber. You're supposed to be injected with cryoliquid to prevent the internal structures from freezing. Like I said, this man had none in him." The doctor explained to her.

"Can you save him?" Stella asked.

"I've gotten him stabilized. For now." He told her.

"Can I see him?" Stella asked.

The doctor considered her for a moment. Seeing no harm in it he let her in and shut the door behind her.

Stella walked quietly up to the table the man was laying on. Multiple IV's were poked into his arms, each one full of a different liquid. She stared at the bags for a moment, wondering what each was supposed to be doing, before turning her attention to the man himself. A small tube ran under his nose, giving small amounts of oxygen to the man at a time. She wondered why the doctor wasn't using one of those breathing tubes she'd seen on other men before, but she didn't question him. Little patches were dotted along the mans bare chest and on a screen next to the bed a bunch of lines beeped away.

She stared at him a long time aware the doctor was watching her. Only when he left the room and walked down the hall (probably to get some coffee) did Stella dare to touch him. She just wanted to know if his skin still felt spongy. She was happy to see that when she gently placed her palm against his shoulder it was no longer as squishy. It had a soft feeling to it, but it wasn't like before. She smiled, glad to see that the man was indeed getting better. But then the monitor started beeping.

She panicked. What had she done? She looked at the monitor. The heart line had gone flat. She felt like a cornered animal. She had no idea what happened, no idea what she did, all that she knew was she had to fix it. The doctor wasn't in the room and he probably wouldn't reach them in time if she called out. Frantically she ran around the room, pulling open drawers and cabinets, looking for something -anything- that she thought might help. That's when she saw it, on the counter were several vials. One of them contained adrenaline. She'd seen men inject themselves with it before when there was something wrong with their heart. She grabbed the vial, filled a syringe with it, and sprinted back over to the man. She didn't know if this would work or just make it worse, but she figured there wasn't anything worse that could happen at this point. She pulled back the plunger and drove the point into the center of his chest. Oh stars how she wished she knew what she was doing. She depressed the plunger until all the liquid inside was emptied and then removed the needle from the man's skin.

–

She wasn't aware she was holding her breath until the monitor started beeping again. She let out a sigh of relief. She did it. She'd saved him. But there was still something wrong. The beeping was getting faster rather than staying at it's slow and steady pace.

"Oh please, not again. Please." She begged.

It was like listening to the tick of a bomb that was getting closer to detonation. She was scared. She didn't know what else to do but stand there and hope the man's heart wouldn't explode. When the beeping got too fast she closed her eyes. She didn't want to watch anymore.

That was when she heard it.

A loud, hoarse gasp. It was followed closely by a rough, claw-like grip on her arm. Her eyes shot open and she saw the man was sitting bolt upright, his fingers digging into her arm with a vice-like grip, and his chest heaving with the heavy breaths he was taking. He looked around the room, his eyes still had some of that white film covering that she'd seen earlier. The way his head moved, quick and jerky, Stella knew he probably couldn't see anything.

"Hello?" She asked, the sound coming from her lips was barely more than a choked out whisper. She was a little scared.

The man's head snapped toward her.

"It's okay." Happiness had brought her voice back to it's fullness. She'd done it. She'd saved his life! "You're going to be okay now!"

The man let go of her arm and looked wildly around the room without seeing again.

"Where am I?" the man's voice was rough and hoarse.

"You're in a medical office. It's okay. We saved you." Stella told him.

"Who are you? Are you the doctor?" He asked.

"No. My name's Stella, I'm the one who found you. I saved you, too. The doctor left, and your heart stopped, but I did it. I saved you!" She was proud.

The man's head cocked in thought. His sightless eyes staring at her.

"You...saved me?" He asked.

"Yes" she answered him and a smile crossed his cut lips. He winced in pain and the smile faded.

"Do you need me to get the doctor?" Stella asked when she noticed his pain.

"I can wait." He said. "Thank you. For saving me."

Stella smiled. "It's no big deal. It's what any person should do."

"But it's not. It's what you did." He said.

"Well, the doctor helped." She was glad he couldn't see her blushing.

"Stella, right?" he asked.

"Yes."

"My name's Orion." He smiled and this time, despite the pain he felt, he didn't drop it.


	4. Stay

Doctor Lalo had returned before Stella and Orion could talk any more. He was so shocked at seeing the man, who had been lying limply and almost dying on the table before he left, sitting upright and talking. So shocked, in fact, that he had dropped the mug of tea he had gotten on the floor.

Orion's head whipped around to the sound and Stella saw him grip the sides of the table with a grip so tight it caused the cracked skin of his knuckles to turn white and crack even more than they were already. The heart monitor started beeping faster, it had leveled out to a normal pace a moment ago and Stella was worried that the sudden spike would cause him to wind up in the same spot he was in before she saved him. When Orion heard the beeping of the monitor and realized that the beeping was caused by the wires keeping track of his heart beat he let go of the table with one hand and ripped the wires off his chest causing the monitor to read as a flat-line.

It took Stella a moment to understand why he'd done that; he was afraid and didn't want anyone to know it.

"It's okay." She told him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

His head quickly turned in her direction but he snapped his head back to stare at the doctor with sightless eyes.

"Orion, it's only the doctor. Dr. Lalo, this is Orion." Stella introduced them. She hoped that Orion would calm down now that she told him it was only the doctor, surely he knew a doctor wouldn't hurt him. His grip remained locked on the table, however.

The doctor looked directly at Stella. "I'm going to need you to leave now."

"No."  
"Why?"

Orion and Stella had spoken at the same time. Stella looked toward Orion but he kept his damaged eyes locked in the direction of the doctor.

"Why?" Stella repeated.

"I need to tend to the patient." The doctor said. "I need you to leave so I can do my job."

"She stays here." Orion said. Stella was amazed at how calm and authoritative his deep voice sounded despite the fear she now knew he felt.

"No, she can not." The doctor told him.

"Why not? I can help." Stella didn't want to leave Orion knowing how he was scared. She thought of what it must be like to come back from the brink of death in a strange room on a strange planet surrounded by strangers.

"You are not medically trained." The doctors voice sounded almost robotic as he stated this fact. "You can not assist me."

"Medically trained or not I think I've done a pretty decent job so far!" Stella argued.

The doctor glared at her. It made Stella feel a little guilty. The man was always so kind and gentle and here she was yelling at him because he needed to do his job the way he was supposed to. He was right, she wasn't authorized to assist him, she didn't have the training, so she needed to leave. But she thought he would understand the need for this man to have someone there with him but doing his job the way he was told was always his top priority.

"You?" He was angry with her. "What happened in here when I left?"

Stella explained the situation and how she'd revived Orion with a shot of adrenaline.

"You could have killed him!" The doctor shouted at her.

"But I didn't! I saved him!" Stella shouted back.

"You need to leave." The doctor said. "It was against every rule of this place to leave you in here without my supervision, but I trusted you, and you practiced things you know nothing about on a living thing!"

The use of the word "thing" instead of "person" or "human" didn't pass by Orion unnoticed.

"She stays." He stated like it was the end of the argument, but it wasn't. He should have realized it wouldn't be. He hadn't been in charge of anything or anyone for a very long time. He could feign authority all he wanted but the truth was he gave up any authority he had when he left the keeper level of Godspeed for good and ripped the wi-com out from under his skin.

The doctor ignored him. "If you do not leave here now I will have someone come and remove you."

"I'm sorry." She said quietly so only Orion could hear her, and she left the room.

Orion's senses weren't quiet working on the level that they should have been but he'd heard her and, more importantly, he had felt the way her fingers lingered on his shoulder for as long as they could as she began to walk away.


	5. Monsters

It had been a week since Stella had last seen Orion; seven days she spent wondering what had happened to him.

After she left the medical office she went down to the ptero incubating room, which was accessed through the back of the ptero room, to check on the couple of eggs there and so that she could be alone with her thoughts for a while. Once she'd calmed down enough she went back to the medical office to ask Dr. Lalo if she could just check on the man she'd saved. When she got there, however, the doctor had called for Zane the moment she walked through the door and Orion was nowhere to be seen. Neither Zane or the doctor would tell her where they had moved Orion. Stella argued and shouted at both of them but to no avail. It was then that she resolved to secretly checking every room in the underground complex she thought they would have moved him to. A task which yielded her no results.

So now here she was, seven days later, back in the ptero room absentmindedly stroking the beak of an adolescent ptero who Stella had let out of his cage. The young ptero was just about the size of her and she knew that if Zane or anyone else walked through that door right now she'd be in more trouble than she could think of, but their visits were rare. They were still afraid of them. She wondered how they could be seeing as how the adolescent pteros were already injected with that obedience drug and one blow from their whistles would make the poor thing their slave.

She heard the door open behind her. 'Fuck.' she thought as she spun around, already trying to make up an excuse for why she had a ptero out of its cage. When she turned it wasn't Zane or Chris or anyone that would have had her terminated from her position – it was Orion.

"It's you!" she said, relief and happiness coated her voice. The ptero was on her left now and it took a step forward, but Stella held out an arm to stop it from moving closer.

Orion stood in the doorway, wide-eyed, no doubt staring at the creature next to her. She could see from here that while his eyes still had some of the white film covering them it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it had been when she first found him. She wondered if that meant he was actually seeing the ptero on her side. She could also see that he stood in an awkward pose; he leaned slightly to the left, and she wondered if there was something wrong with one of his ribs. His wrists were bandaged and she remembered the way they had deep gashes around where his sleeves had ended when she found him.

"What is that?" If he was scared she couldn't tell from his voice.

"It's a ptero. It's okay, I wont let it hurt you. You can come closer if you want." she told him, but he didn't move. "We can control them, trust me, they won't hurt you unless someone makes them. This one's okay, I've got him."

"How do you control them?" he asked, and she heard something like anger in his voice.

"It's some kind of drug." she would have explained more but as soon as she said the word 'drug' Orion had turned and walked out of the room.

She quickly put the ptero back in his cage and ran out of the room to catch up to Orion. It wasn't that hard, really, his injuries made him move slow and he needed to keep a hand on the wall as he walked, but she could see that he was trying his best to leave as quickly as possible.

"Orion! Wait!" she said when she was only a few feet behind him, but he didn't stop, in fact he tried to go even faster but the strain was too much on his body and he finally did stop when he hunched over in pain – one hand on the wall still and the other arm holding his ribs.

Stella caught up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder gently. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He shrugged her hand off his shoulder, the action sending more pain throughout his body. "Frex." he cursed under his breath.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Monsters." he hissed.

"They're not -" she started, assuming he was talking about the pteros.

"Not them. All of you! The sol-earth people. The centauri-earth people, eldest – all of you. Monsters!" he yelled at her.

She was hurt. Anyone would be if the man whose life they saved told them they considered them a monster.

"I don't understand." she said quietly, the hurt was heavy in her voice.

"No, you wouldn't. You would think it was okay to drug things into obedience! To take away their freewill!" he raved, he was taking great efforts to fight through the pain and appear in control.

"No one said I thought that was okay!" she yelled back at him. So that's what this was about. The drugs. She was angry with him now for assuming he knew how she felt. How dare he accuse her of agreeing with the use of this drug just because she mentioned the pteros being controlled with it. "You don't know me," her voice was low and angry. "I don't agree with this drug being used on people! I'm part of the damned movement trying to bring down the FRX! We use it on the pteros because those friggen things would rip every damn one of us on this planet limb from limb if you let them. They're not supposed to friggen be here but some goddamn genius thought it'd be okay to bring back a creature supposed to be extinct for billions of years! The drug in the veins of these creatures saves our lives. What the FRX did to the people in the city... Those are the 'monsters'. We didn't do this! They did!"

A sneer spread on his face. "So, you know about the FRX?"

"Yeah, they're the bastards responsible for making the city people walk around like the living dead. They're the bastards that didn't expect people like me to happen as a result. They're the bastards who are constantly trying to kill me and the others like me just because they can't control us!" she wasn't shouting anymore, but the loathing was clear in her voice.

"I'm sorry." he said after the two of them were silent for a long time. "I didn't know we had so much in common."

"What the hell do you mean?" Last time she checked he wasn't a hybrid. Last time she checked the FRX wasn't trying to kill him.

"It's a long story, maybe I'll tell you it sometime, but the short version is this: Where I came from the people were put on phydus -"

"Phydus?" she asked.

"The drug." he told her. She hadn't known it had an actual name. "Anyway, the people were put on it in order to control them and keep them from rioting. Anyone who expressed any individual thought was considered a threat to the entire ship and was killed."

"So how does that make us the same? How does that make you any different from the FRX?" She asked.

"Because I was one of those off phydus. I was supposed to be the leader of that frexing ship, but when I expressed my individual thought and started asking too many questions I was supposed to be killed. So you see, it's the same shite, different place."

She was quiet again, she was too busy taking it all in. He was right though. They were the same. Both risking their lives by being anything other than a mindless drone.

"I'm sorry." he repeated.

She sighed. "It's okay." she smiled at him.


	6. Sirens

Stella and Orion stood in awkward silence for a moment before a dozen people stormed passed them. Orion watched, wide-eyed, as the group trampled on by and Stella felt her stomach drop. This was not good. She'd skipped a week of meetings out of anger for not allowing her to see Orion, not even letting her know if he was alive or dead or what his condition was, and now she had no idea what plans Zane had cooked up.

The parade of people ended and Stella saw Orion stare down the direction that they'd went even though they were long gone and out of sight.

"How are your eyes?" she asked, curious to why he was staring and using the wall for seemingly a lot more than just to support himself, and genuinely concerned about him. She remembered the way his eyes looked clearer and wondered if he was still having a lot of difficulty seeing.

"They're shite." he admitted. He wasn't one for lying, not anymore. In fact, he hadn't lied in a very long time. He'd been cryptic, yes, and he'd leave half-truths out in hopes people would find the rest out themselves, but he hadn't lied. "I can only make out shapes unless there's a lot of light, then I can see some colors. Your doctor gave me these drops, but he said that it could be a few days before they're healed."

"Is that why they let you come find me? Because you can see, well sorta, now?" She asked.

"They didn't let me come find you." he stated.

The statement took her by surprise. "If they didn't let you out -"

"I ran away." he finished for her.

It made sense. She realized that Zane wouldn't allow the doctor to let a man, one not even from this planet, walk around an underground complex used as a sort of military base. Too many weapons that could be used against them, too many machines that could be tampered with and made to detonate, too many pteros that could be let lose to wreck havoc.

"Why?" she wasn't angry with him she just wanted to know. She didn't have that overly militaristic view that Zane and the others had. Yes, she knew the dangers of having a stranger wandering around the complex, but she didn't see Orion as a stranger, she only saw him as the man on the hill whose life she'd saved. She figured that she shouldn't trust him blindly, however. She'd treat him like the pteros. She'd trust him, but not blindly. After all, everything had two sides to it and for all she knew this man could be just as dangerous as an uncontrolled ptero.

"Let's just say I'm not overly fond of medical offices." He was not about to explain how he'd been strapped to a hospital bed with a doctor who'd been given orders to kill him ready to inject him with poison. "And I wanted to find you."

"Me?" She felt stupid the moment the word left her lips with a slight hint of delight. Of course he would come looking for her – he was fully aware of how she saved him and therefore it would make sense that he would be the one he sought out for answers to questions or just for someone to trust or talk to. At the same time, though, she put up a guard; what exactly did he want her for? He could have gone looking for Zane to demand answers. What if he was using her just because she was a woman in her mid twenties rather than a thirty year old man with a militaristic mindset?

Orion smiled. "Maybe I'm a bit naïve, but I tend to trust the people who save my life."

The last word was almost cut off by the sound of the alarms going off. The light of the complex changed and everything was bathed in a red light.

"Fuck." Stella muttered.

Orion looked around, the change of light to one of a darker hue left him blind again. Stella realized that she couldn't send him walking back to the room they'd kept him (which is obviously where he didn't want to be) when he couldn't see.

"I'll take you to the recreational room, you can stay there until I find out what the hell is going on." she yelled over the noise. The alarms going off meant she no longer could ignore whatever Zane was planning.

"No!" it was hard and loud, he managed to speak at the precise moment when everything was silent in between the measured wails of the siren. "I'm going with you."

"I can't -" she started.

"I'm frexing going with you!" he'd be dammed if he let another person deny him from knowing the truth behind what was going on. Nineteen years of being lied to by Eldest and then an additional seventeen spent living amongst the people being lied to unable to tell them the truth (and at times unsure if he even wanted to) made him realize that no matter what the cost, no matter what he had to do, he would not be lied to anymore. He demanded truth.

Stella didn't have time to argue with him and she really didn't feel like dragging a broken man down a hallway against his will. Sure, that would be easy and that would be what Zane would have done, but she also knew that what was happening was between the Godspeed people, the Sol-Earth people, and her people. The man from Godspeed had the right to know what was going on, too.

"How fast can you walk?" she asked.

"Fast enough." It wasn't a lie. He knew walking was going to cause him pain, he knew that anything other than a slow walk would be a killer, but he would walk at her pace anyway. He would put himself through that pain for the truth, besides, it's not like he hadn't before.

"Then let's go." she said.

Stella walked toward the meeting room, Orion had a hand on her shoulder so that he could follow. His breathing was heavy, loud enough that their closeness allowed her to hear the breaths over the siren. She was also able to hear whimpers and gasps of pain. Orion himself couldn't hear these things, but Stella did. She felt bad about the pain he was in, but she had to get where she needed to be as quickly as possible.

When they finally reached the meeting room Stella pushed open the door and they stopped. Orion nearly collapsed. In fact, he swayed so much that Stella put out her arm to steady him. The sirens weren't going off in this room, it's the only room of the complex that wasn't equipped with them, but the lights were still red to serve as warning that there was an alarm going on outside the room. Stella closed the door behind her and Orion to block out the piercing wails.

"What the hell is he doing here?!" Zane stood up straight, he had been leaning over some plans on the table, surrounded by the usual six. "And who do you think you are bringing him in here when you yourself haven't even been in this room in a week!"

"I want to know what's going on." Stella demanded.

"Take him out of here!" Zane yelled.

"No." Stella stated. "He has the right to know. Whatever is going on here is against his people, isn't it? Our people. His people. I have the right to know. He has the right to know. Now tell us!"

"Stella, if I have to tell you one more time -" he warned.

"Then what? You'll lock me away? Or will you 'put me down' like you did our parents?" She screamed.

The silence was deafening and for a moment Orion missed the wails of the siren. All eyes were shifting between Stella and Zane, except Orion's who had no idea which direction to face except Stella's as hers was the last voice he heard and could follow.

"Get out." Zane said in a hushed, menacing voice. "And take him with you."

Orion knew that if he was in even half a condition better he would ring the neck of this man, who took shape in his mind as Eldest, with delight. So far this is what he knew: Stella saved his life, Zane killed Stella's (and his own) parents, something was happening between the people Zane was in charge of and his own people, and Stella wasn't being told anything. It made him feel a connection with her.

Stella turned before Zane could see her eyes welling up with tears that she'd be damned if she let them out and was glad that Orion couldn't see them. She still didn't know why but she wanted to appear important and in control in front of him and Zane just made it painfully obvious that she was neither.

Stella grabbed Orion by the hand and pulled him gently as she opened the door. When they were both out and she slammed the door behind her she led him to an elevator and took them up to the surface. She'd figure out what was going on one way or the other. If she couldn't get answers from her people then she'd just have to get answers from Orion's.


	7. Too Late

The twin suns were shining bright, it was almost noon, when they stepped out of the elevator and onto the grass (the elevator had been hidden inside a large hollowed out tree trunk). Orion's eyes widened more than Stella thought possible and he looked in every direction he could, trying to drink in as much of the world as he could, as if he was afraid it would all be ripped from him within seconds. Stella realized that this would be his first time actually seeing the world and she felt a rush of happiness for him. She may have been born here, and the others may have taken the world they live in for granted already, but not her. It was only a few generations ago that this world became inhabited and everything was still so new. The people never ventured away from this colonization point, which she thought was really stupid of them, and she wanted to see the world. All of it, not just this small part they stayed in because the city people and the FRX were holding them there.

Orion took a careful step towards the tree that neighbored the one used for the elevator and reached out and touched it in the same way one would carefully reach out to test if a stove were still hot. When his fingers brushed over the rough bark he pulled his hand away, but only for a moment, and then placed it back against the tree.

Stella turned away from watching him, which she hated to do because she enjoyed watching him discover things the way a very small child would, but she didn't want him to see the way she was grinning at him (though with the attention he was paying to the earth around him it wasn't likely he would notice her smiling at him). When she turned away that's when she heard it. Her overly heightened sense of hearing picked up on the sound of an explosion and seconds later she felt the ground shake, just slightly as they were far enough away from whatever had happened, but she felt it all the same.

Orion felt it, too, and it made him remember that there are more important things that have to be taken care of before he can discover this earth that was so unlike Godspeed that he already regretted not getting his people of the ship sooner. Well, he almost regretted it, he was right about the monsters on this planet and still had to figure out if dealing with them would be worth it.

"What was that?" he asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

"I think it was a bomb." Stella said.

"They're blowing up my people!?" Orion yelled.

"I don't know." He was probably right, she doubted the Godspeed people had bombs with them and had attacked her people, so it was probably the other way around. Still, she couldn't rule out anything yet.

"What do you mean you don't know?" He was angry, but not at her, he knew she didn't have answers for him but he had to ask them, he had to know what was going on with his people.

"You know I don't know! You were blind in that room not deaf!" she snapped at him. She had to do something. She was too late to stop the attack. She couldn't go strolling up to the Godspeed people who had holed up in the old ruins and have them not attack her, too. She doubted they were even able to tell friend from foe at this point because a thick smoke had appeared above the tree line. Her people, however, would be able to see through it. The Godspeed people were trapped like rats in a cage. Truth was she didn't know what to do.

She thought for a moment and ignored the yells of Orion from behind her. He was saying they had to do something, which she knew. He was saying she had to stop her people, which she knew. He was saying he had to save his people, which gave her pause. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't even walk well and he wanted to fight? He had a lot of fight in him, she realized, and she hoped it wouldn't make him do anything stupid.

"We need a plan." He said.

Well, he wasn't reckless after all, Stella realized. He had fire in him, but he wasn't reckless.

"Wait." She said.

"We don't have time!" he was panicked now and wasn't even trying to hide it. Or he was but was failing miserably.

"It's bright enough for you to see out here, right?" she asked.

"Yes." He answered.

"I know you can't walk that well, but I need you to follow behind me. If you lose sight of me push this button and I'll be able to communicate with you." She handed him a small rectangular object. "It's a communicator."

"I know what it is." He said. He'd used wi-coms all his life. While his were smaller, rounded, and implanted beneath the skin behind the left ear at birth, he could still recognize a form of wireless communication when he saw one. He absentmindedly placed his fingers behind his left ear and traced the spiderweb shaped scar there for a moment.

"Okay, good." She said and turned to walk away from the direction the smoke was coming from.

"Wait!" Orion called after her, "Shouldn't we be going that way?" he pointed in the direction of the smoke.

"What's happening there is too late to stop, especially since it's just us. We're going to the old communication base." She told him and took off at a quick walk, almost a jog. She wanted – needed – to get there quickly, but she couldn't leave Orion behind either. As she walked she couldn't help but feel that a lot of her problems this last week arose from him being here. She felt, and honestly she knew, that if she hadn't saved him she would have been focused on the meetings, she wouldn't have argued with her brother, she wouldn't have called him out on what he did to their parents in front of others (which she never should have done anyway), and she would know what was going on right now. A part of her was glad she saved him, though, and she didn't know why.

By the time they showed up at the old communication base Stella could see that something had already happened. The giant glass window had been smashed in, the shuttle chamber was opened and the shuttle was missing, and she had heard a gunshot ring out as they approached. Something very bad was happening here, she knew it. Her plans were all out the window now.

Orion caught up to her a few moments later.

"Well?" he asked. He was out of breath and there was pain laced in his voice. Both his arms were around his middle and he hunched over.

"Shh." She hushed him. She knew that if whoever was inside was quiet they'd be able to hear them.

A girl's voice rang out, she was yelling at whoever was in there with her. It was followed by a scream.

Orion had heard her.

"I…I know that voice." He said. He started to walk forward but Stella held him back.

"We can't go in there." She said.

"We have to help her! I know who's in there!" He argued. "If she's in there then he's sure to be in there and frex if I'm going to let your people kill him!"

Your people. Kill.

When the Godspeed people first landed Zane had called the first meeting about it. Usually their meetings were about taking care of the city people, recruiting new hybrids when they turned nineteen, or taking babies away from those too under the influence of the controlling drug that they didn't know how to care for their children because their primary function was to make products for the FRX. Then Godspeed landed and Zane called them to a meeting. A meeting that Stella remembered clearly stated that none of the people coming off Godspeed would be hurt. Well, obviously that was a lie.

Then she heard a voice she recognized. Two actually. Zane and Chris were in there.

She should have known.

Stella was hurt. When they first learned of Godspeed she'd hoped that it would one day land, and that there would be more free-thinking people for her to be around. People without a militaristic mindset, people who would share her desire to explore the world. She'd hoped that she would finally be able to make friends with these people. But now Zane was taking them away from her, too. And why, because the Sol-Earth people came with them?

Her mind was made up. She was only armed with a single small gun that was strapped to her ankle but she would go in there anyway. No matter what she would save the Godspeed people because after everything that had happened in the last week she realized that the enemy was her own people.

"Stay here. I'll take care of this." She told Orion.

"No. I'm coming with you." He told her and began walking toward her and the base.

"You can't fight." She told him.

"I'll do what I can." He said. "If he's in there I have to save him."

She didn't know who 'he' was or why Orion was so bent on saving him but she knew he would only get himself killed if he went in there.

"I promise I'll save him and the girl and whoever else my brother has held in there." She told him. "But you have to stay here, you'll just end up getting yourself killed."

"I don't do promises." He told her. He couldn't trust her on this. He wanted to, but he couldn't. If Elder was in there, and he wasn't going to let Elder be killed by these people. This was something he needed to make sure of himself.

"Orion - " Stella started.

"I'm. Going." He hissed.

Fine. They couldn't waste any more time. There had been too much quiet coming from the communication base, something else was going on.

Stella grabbed Orion's hand and they began running across the field surrounding the base. Every movement caused Orion pain and he collapsed. Stella hoisted him back on to his feet and continued, only stopping when they were a yard away from the base and a young girl with flaming red hair stepped appeared in front of the broken window. She was staring straight at the sky. Stella could see from here the way her irises were blue and oval in shape. Zane had made her one of them. She'd heard of the experiments the doctor was doing, but she had no idea he was making hybrid serums.

Stella turned in the direction the girl was staring, hoping to figure out what was going on, and Orion followed their gaze as well. He could recognize that fiery hair anywhere. Amy. But what was she watching out for and where was Elder? Why couldn't he see him?

That's when it happened. A burst of light and color exploded across the sky. A supernova. Stella was in awe, but Orion knew better. Elder was nowhere to be seen, but there was Amy staring wild-eyed at the sky. He was too late to save Elder after all.


End file.
